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Monday, December 22, 2008

A Really Poor Pour

Okay, this isn't exactly beer-related, but check out what Starbucks handed me today.

Now, admittedly, I did have one sip out of this--the sip that alerted me to the incredible short pour--but good god, that's 8 ounces of liquid. Good thing I do not concern myself with the pours of bad coffee chains. Suffice it to say, there was no Stumptown nearby.

(And no, I didn't ask for "room for cream," which is the biggest racket in the coffee biz. They always give you enough headroom for 2 ounces of cream. Who puts two ounces of cream in their coffee?)

I tend to put that much cream in a LARGE sized coffee (16+ oz.), but yeah you're right about the "head space" on your cup of Starbucks.Re: Soda, I've gotten in the habit of ordering a small soda with no ice. With this you A) get the same amount of soda as a large cup crammed with ice and B) you're sparing yourself from bacteria-infused ice since most fast food places are negligent in sanitizing their ice makers.

As an ex-barista (though not at the dreaded Starbucks), there are two factors that contribute to your getting significant headspace for "cream"

1) For the most part the baristas themselves do not actually drink coffee - most of them, if they drink anything at all, drink fru-fru latte drinks - thus, they do not actually know how much room to provide for cream and thus tend to overestimate the amount of room needed for it

2) approx 1/4" is "walking around" head space - if the cup were filled all the way to the top, coffee would slosh out and burn the patrons - and post-mcdonald's we all know what happens when patrons get burned by coffee

In any event, all of the baristas I know (admittedly I don't know Starbucks' policy) will gladly top you off if you ask.---Jeff---

It's inexcusable. As a former barista (circa 1991-2) and a proud coffee addict since 1985, I am here to tell you I've NEVER had a pour like that. I didn't get it topped off because the Starbucks was mobbed with people--it was so bad they were running out of change. And walking-around-space? Come on. What with this modern lid technology and all, you can fill it right to the brim!

I did consider, briefly, getting another cup and asking for "room for cream" just to see how much space they would have allowed then. Hey look, the bottom of the cup is nearly wet.

As for bottled beers being honest, I've recently noticed that 22 ounce bottles of Firestone Walker are noticeably shorter than just about any other. Perhaps the glass bottles are thicker, I need to measure. The fattest fills I've seen in a 22 oz'ers are those of Silver City that reach the cap.